The Little Sparrow
by Cantora
Summary: Captain Jack is ready for a relaxing visit to Tortuga, but when he gets there he finds someone waiting for him with a big surprise: a baby. NEW! Chapter 2: A Babe Among Pirates
1. She's Yours

"The Little Sparrow"  
  
Disclaimer: The characters do not at all belong to me, unfortunately. I have merely taken them out to play for a while.  
  
Note: We all know that Captain Jack Sparrow often kept "pleasurable company," and here is what resulted from one of those events.  
  
Warnings: This story is rated PG for suggestions to past sexual activity and very mild and rare profanity.  
  
Chapter One  
  
~She's Yours~  
  
Captain Jack Sparrow strolled, or rather stumbled, about the island of Tortuga. The Pearl was taking a rest stop, as it were, and its captain was out happily seeking rum and women. The rum was down, now for such pleasurable company as his available money could afford. Ah, there were the beauties.  
  
"Wendy!" Jack cried, seeing a familiar form in the shadow. The form came forth into the light and promptly slapped him across the face. Hard. 'You'd think I'd get used to this.' Jack thought. But Wendy did not flounce away in her faded yellow dress. She just stood there, staring Jack in the eye.  
  
"Jack Sparrow! You did this to me!" She said menacingly. Jack swayed backwards, somewhat belatedly, and raised his eyebrows.  
  
"I'm sorry, love, I missed something. Did what to you?" He asked. Wendy glared at him and he flinched perceptibly.  
  
"You gave me a child, Sparrow: a daughter. And don't think I want her. She's yours." Wendy stated firmly.  
  
Jack, thoughts of rum and women gone, stood a moment absorbing the load of information he had just heard. A child? He had a daughter?! "How... old?" He managed.  
  
"Two weeks. I have nowhere to put her and I can't work with her around; I can't do anything with a baby, Sparrow! You take her or the streets will."  
  
The first coherent thought that made its appearance in Jack's mind was, 'And to think people like her are considered pleasurable company.' Then, 'I can't leave the girl to die in the streets. I am her father after all... wait...' "Wendy, how do you know that I'm the father?" He asked.  
  
"You're the only one. I couldn't work for a while after you because I got sick, see? You're the only one." She repeated. "And anyway, she looks like you."  
  
Jack tried to imagine a baby girl with his distinctive features, and, after the amount of rum he had imbibed, the results were quite amusing. He chuckled. "Have I really been away from this lovely place so long?" He thought out loud.  
  
"You've been away near ten months now, and don't think we've been sad about it." Wendy said pertly. Jack brushed off the insult: he wasn't too happy to be back himself either, now. Suddenly the effects of having a baby around hit him full force.  
  
"Wendy, what am I supposed to do with a bloody baby? A girl, no less! I'm a pirate! The captain of the Pearl! That's no place for a baby to be!" He cried, becoming somewhat frantic. The other "ladies" gathered about, beginning to get interested in this drama.  
  
"Like I said, you or the streets."  
  
"But, Wendy, love, can't you just... just keep her for a little while? Until she grows up?"  
  
"Sparrow, you take her, or she'll die. I don't want her." Wendy said bluntly. Jack groaned. What would he do with a baby? She couldn't live on the Pearl. There was no possible way. But maybe...  
  
"Alright. She'll come with me, then. Where is she, anyway?" He finally said.  
  
"Follow me."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Wendy led him to a shack of a boarding house a few minutes away. The gaggle of women had stayed behind. 'Waiting for more victims,' Jack thought sourly. When they walked in Wendy's room, Jack noticed a new addition to it: a pile of rags and blankets that apparently served as a bed for the babe, who was at the moment sleeping peacefully.  
  
"She sleeps there? Alone?" Jack asked incredulously. Wendy didn't answer and picked up the infant.  
  
"Here," She said, handing the little girl over. Jack awkwardly caught her, but once she was in his arms, he relaxed into what seemed to be a natural position. He pulled back the blanket from her face with his other hand and stared. She did look like him. He glanced up at Wendy and back down at the girl. She didn't look a thing like her mother. 'Good.' He thought, a mite viciously. Jack looked closer. She was... she was small. And she was beautiful. And she was his: all his own. "What's her name?" He asked softly.  
  
"She doesn't have one. You name her. She's yours now." Wendy said dismissively. Jack gaped. How could you help but name such a gorgeous thing?  
  
"Bloody whore..." He muttered.  
  
"What did you call me?" Wendy demanded.  
  
"I called you a bloody whore! You have to be to be such an awful person as to not love a beautiful child like this!" Jack raised his voice, the rum coming back to haunt him. The girl squirmed in her sleep. Jack turned his attention back to her. He thought on names, and was brought back to the only woman he had ever really admired. Elizabeth Swann. Well, Turner now. But Elizabeth... "Thank you, Wendy. I'll be on my way now." He said.  
  
"Wait, what did you decide to name her?" Wendy asked.  
  
"Elizabeth. My little Sparrow."  
  
~~~TBC~~~ 


	2. A Babe Among Pirates

**Chapter 2**

**~A Babe Among Pirates~**

Jack received many an odd look as he made his way back to the _Pearl_. It was not every day one got to see the most infamous pirate captain in the Caribbean strolling about with a sleeping baby in his arms, after all. Indeed, 'twas a once in a life-time opportunity. Jack ignored the incredulous onlookers and tried to think about what he was going to do now... but thinking was such a hard thing to do when one had had as much rum as he had. Best get back to the ship now and think later. Or let Gibbs do the thinking for this one. Yes, _that_ was a plan.

        Elizabeth squirmed a little and opened her eyes. She made a cooing noise and Jack paused in his walking and looked down at his new-found daughter. "Well, hello there, love." Elizabeth gurgled and clenched her fingers. "You're comin' with me now on me ship. She's a beauty; you'll love 'er." Jack said. Elizabeth looked up at him and blinked her large brown eyes slowly as if to say "And just who are _you_ to be taking me to your ship?" Jack smiled and gently brushed her cheek with his fingertip. "Why, I'm your father, lovey. Come on, now, I've got to introduce you to the crew."

        "Beh." said Elizabeth.

        By this time the pair had made it to the Tortuga docks. Ah, there was the Pearl, anchored just meters away. Jack sighed as he walked up the gang-plank into his ship. _His_ ship. Although it had been well over a year since he had gotten her back, he would never take that fact for granted again. 

Jack's relatively early return attracted some attention from the crew members that had stayed aboard the _Pearl__. Gibbs, for once, had been among those who stayed, and was at the moment among those who were staring. Elizabeth chose this moment to coo and wriggle her arm in the air, reaching for one of Jack's beaded dreadlocks. There was a collective gasp among the men at the sight of her. _

"J-... Jack? Is that a— a _baby?_ A real baby?" Gibbs stammered. The other men just stared. Jack rolled his eyes dramatically and nodded. 

"Yes, Gibbs," He said matter-of-factly. "This is a baby. My baby. What did you think she was? A duck?" Gibbs had started when Jack said "My baby" and seemingly still hadn't recovered, for he continued to gape open-mouthed. He managed to pull out his flask nervously and gulp a quick sip. 

"Well— er, no, not a duck— but what is she doing here? Er... _yer baby, Cap'in?" Gibbs stuttered out._

"Gah." said Elizabeth, as if that explained everything. Jack smiled tenderly at her, startling the crew even more. They begin to wonder if perhaps _they had imbibed too much rum and ale and if they were indeed beginning to hallucinate their captain holding a wee babe as if it were the most natural thing in the world. _

"Very good, Gibbs! I'm glad we got it cleared up that she is, in fact, _not a duck." Jack mock-bowed to his first mate. "Her mother, Wendy, who I am sure most of you are familiar with, informed me not half an hour ago that this was my child, and that I was to take 'responsibility' of her or she would leave the babe on the streets to fare for herself. And so, here she is."_

Gibbs had recovered now, and he was beginning to look thoughtful and a mite worried. He said nothing, though, so Jack continued. "Elizabeth, meet my crew. Crew, meet my Little Sparrow." Jack held the child up a bit and took her small arm in his free hand and waved it around a bit. Elizabeth smiled and cooed and giggled at the rag-tag men, who, at the sight of her, immediately fell in love with the child. They wandered up and begin to baby-talk to her and make strange faces. Elizabeth reached out to them and laughed happily. 

"Ah, Cap'in, might I have a word with ya in yer quarters?" Gibbs asked quietly from beside him. Jack nodded wordlessly. He walked away, the men reluctant not to follow their new community-baby. Jack went in his rooms and Gibbs shut the door behind them. "Jack... Jack— er, I see yer fond of little Lizzie there, but— and I know you couldn't very well leave 'er to die, but, Jack, what are we going to do with a baby?" Jack was silent. "We can't keep 'er 'ere, Cap'in. It just can't be done!" 

Jack walked over and placed Elizabeth on his bed to coo and chew on her knuckles. He thoughtfully sat in his chair. "I don't know, Gibbs." He buried his face in his hands. "This time I just don't know!" Elizabeth whimpered as if she sensed her father's anxiety. Jack raised his head. "But you're right; she can't stay on the _Pearl__. A ship's no place for a young child. We have to take her somewhere..." _

"We were plannin' on headin' towards Port Royal, weren't we?" Gibbs said, an idea forming in his mind. Jack caught his eye. "It's about time we paid your friends there a visit, don't ya think, Cap'in?" Jack grinned, his problem hopefully solved. 

"Aye, Gibbs. It's high time." 

~~~~~TBC~~~~~


End file.
